This invention relates to smoking articles, and more particularly to a tobacco tamping tool for a smoking pipe.
In the art of smoking tobacco in a pipe having a bowl, the degree of compaction of the tobacco affects the efficiency and enjoyment of the smoking. If the tobacco is too loose in the bowl of the pipe, excessive amounts of air and smoke pass through the loose tobacco in the bowl and the stem and into the smoker's mouth and possibly his lungs. If the tobacco is packed too tightly in the bowl of the pipe, little, if any, air and smoke can pass through the tobacco in the bowl and the pipe, even if the smoker increases his draft through the pipe stem. In some instances, when the tobacco is packed too tightly, combustion is so limited that the flame or burning tobacco becomes extinguished.
Accordingly, a pipe smoker tamps the tobacco within the bowl of the pipe with a tamper or tamping tool until the compaction of the tobacco is proper, not too loose and not too tight, to achieve the smoking efficiency and enjoyment desired by the pipe smoker.
Conventionally, the tobacco in the pipe bowl is tamped with any desired tamping tool having a tamping head and usually an elongated slender rod or stem supporting the tamping head. Nevertheless, regardless of the particular design of the tamping tool, the tamping head and stem, rod or handle are usually integral with each other to provide a rigid tamping tool. Therefore, considerable practice must be conducted by the pipe smoker to develop the degree of skill or feel in using the tamping tool to attain the desired tobacco compaction within the pipe bowl. Thus, a successful pipe smoker resorts to considerable experimentation in tamping the tobacco in the bowl before the desired smoking results are obtained.